Thursday, December 18, 2008

Artic Chill - December 2008

I love winter. And I love snow. I would go to the mountains nearly every weekend to explore the beautiful peaceful winter wonderland, to find the magical beauty of snowbound forest, to enjoy the freedom of dashing through blanketed meadows, to admire snow capped lakes and artfull creations of frozen waterfalls.

I love snow in the mountains. Snow in the cities is a completely diffrent story however. Living in an elevation of mere 114 ft above sea level we are lucky not to see huge amount of snow on roadways too often. Usually we have to deal with couple days of few inches and that’s it.

This year started on a different note. The snow made a late arrival. There was not even 4 inches in the ski resorts the first weekend of December when most years that is the opening weekend. We thought we’re in for a mellow winter – a thought I liked since mellow winter means less avalanche danger and possibility to get to many more places.

Then Mother Nature threw us a surprise and within two days we went from sunny balmy 50 degrees to massive snowstorms and artic chill with temperature dropping in single digits during nighttime. The heavy dark clouds would not stop dumping, soon turning highways in a circus of unskilled drivers negotiation the conditions the best way they can many times by performing stunts ranging from plain stupid to highly dangerous.

When you wake up and your car looks something like this….





... you know it's better to stay at home.

It took us over 2 hours to dig our cars out and clear the driveway. Once we finished the hard work (I don't envy those who live in the more harsh areas of the country and have to make friends with their shovels all winter long), we decided to make the best of the snow day and took our truck for a spin around the town. It's not that often we can go 4 wheeling on our very own street.



The town was full of happy kids hauling their sleds towards the hillside and even happier teens driving trucks, ATVs and snowmobiles. Most of the adults did not show the same enthusiasm as they were shoveling their way out of their houses.



We got 12 inches and they say it's far from over. If we can trust the forecast we can be looking forward for a treat of White Christmas this year. Let it snow!

1 comment:

Its Time to Live said...

Merry Christmas - your storm is hitting us now!